Love and Marriage
Details: This assignment explores cultural differences in beliefs about love and marriage. In your textbook (on p. 375), research conducted by Levine, Sato, Hashimoto, and Verma (1995) is described. As part of their research, they asked college students in 11 countries to complete questions regarding their views about love and marriage.
After reading the textbook and considering your own beliefs on these issues, respond to the following questions:
Levine and colleagues found that members of individualist cultures were more likely than members of collectivist cultures to view love as important in decisions about marriage. In fact, in some collectivist cultures, intense romantic love is viewed as immature and threatening to the family structure. How might you explain this finding? Be sure to explain the finding for both collectivistic and individualistic cultures.
Levine and colleagues also reported a distinction among collectivist cultures, with members of more economically developed countries (such as Japan and Hong Kong) attributing greater importance to love than less economically developed collectivist cultures (such as India, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines). How might you explain these findings? Make sure to explain the finding for both more and less economically developed collectivist cultures.
In a 1967 study of American college students, Kephart reported that 65% of males and 24% of females answered “no” to the question about marrying someone who had the qualities you desired, but with whom you are not in love. No such gender differences were found by Levine and colleagues. Approximately 80% of males and females in their sample of Americans answered “no” to the same question. From a cultural perspective, how might you explain the dramatic change in response of American females between 1967 and 1995? Why do you think the scores of males show increased importance attributed to love over that same period of time?
The few valid studies that have compared the marital satisfaction of arranged marriages versus autonomous marriages (“love matches”) have had conflicting results. It is particularly difficult to compare divorce rates since societies vary greatly in terms of the ease with which marital partners, particularly women, can divorce (Hatfield & Rapson, 2005). We do know that there appears to be a global trend away from arranged marriages (Dion & Dion, 2005). Do you think this trend will ultimately be harmful or beneficial to relationships? Explain.
